The present invention relates to a shift-by-wire type shift device.
In a prior art automobile, in which an automatic transmission is installed, the gear position of an automatic transmission is determined by moving a shift lever of a shift device. A shift-by-wire type shift device has been developed in these recent years. The shift-by-wire type shift device detects the position of a shift member, such as a shift lever, with a sensor and converts the detected signal into an electric shifting signal, which activates an actuator for switching the connected gear of the transmission in accordance with the shifting signal. The shift-by-wire type shift device does not require a mechanical structure, such as a link mechanism. This facilitates manufacturing of a more compact shift device. Further, the shifting of gears is performed with a relatively small force and the shift device is laid out with more freedom in the passenger compartment.
However, in the prior art shift-by-wire type shift device, sensors, which detect the position of the shift lever, are arranged at positions corresponding to each position of the shift lever. Therefore, space is required at each shift lever position for the corresponding sensor. Thus, it is difficult to reduce the size of the shift device.